Entire gadget industry reportedly faces touchscreen supply shortage

It isn’t just Apple (AAPL) that’s having trouble building enough touchscreens for its mobile devices. According to a new report from Digitimes, “the recent releases of tablets by Apple, Microsoft (MSFT) and Samsung Electronics (005930) as well as a recent explosion at a chemical plant in Japan” has left the entire tech industry short of “upstream thin-film type touch screen materials” until at least the end of the year. Supply chain sources have told Digitimes that Samsung in particular has tried to hog touchscreen resources by “putting in twice the amount of orders it normally does” in order to force “its competitors to battle over their orders for the materials.”